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Report - NIRD Farm, Berks - March 2014

Regular User

So here is the second site of mine and Mookies mad few days. Bearing in mind Iâ€™ve been too busy to do photo reports of late.

Extensive History, borrowed from Merlin's report:

History of the National Institute for Research in Dairying

The need for farm land at agricultural research institutes is occasionally questioned. At the N.I.R.D. (National Institute for Research in Dairying) it wouldnâ€™t have been impossible to carry out research on the physiology of lactation and ruminant nutrition with a few cows and relatively little land, but for a substantial system of applied research on milk production technology, large numbers of cattle at the calf, rearing and lactation stages are much needed.

The 1920 move from Reading to Shinfield provided the Institute with Church Farm. This was set in 332 acres of land and included some traditional buildings which, with some fairly cheap additions; allowed the development of a Shorthorn herd of up to 60 cows.

Expansion of the farming activities was soon needed. This became evident during the 1930's.

In 1945 land was pretty inexpensive and was coming on the market locally.
Arborfield Hall Farm was purchased in 1947 (299 acres). Although this subsequently became the home of the Bernard Weitz Centre with a new herd of 400 lactating cows.

The site eventually closed in mid 1980s, and the grounds were maintained initially, which stopped by about the early 1990s.